CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Space shuttle Discovery's launch to the International Space Station now is targeted for no earlier than March 15. NASA managers postponed Wednesday's planned liftoff due to a leak associated with the gaseous hydrogen venting system outside the external fuel tank. The system is used to carry excess hydrogen safely away from the launch pad.
Liftoff on March 15 would be at 7:43 p.m. EDT. The exact launch date is dependent on ... [full story]

Salmonella bacteria research from two recent NASA space missions discovered key elements of the bacteria's disease-causing potential that hold promise for improving ways to fight food-borne infections on Earth.
Salmonella is a leading cause of food poisoning and related illnesses. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 40,000 cases of Salmonella infections are reported in the United States each year.
"This research opens up new areas for investigations that may improve food ... [full story]

Increased ocean acidity seems to affect clownfish behavior. In more acidic water, some odors didn't drive away the clownfish larvae.
Locusts tend to form swarms once the neurotransmitter serotonin is released. While in the swarm, individual locusts change from a green color to black and yellow.
Located between Argentina and Chile, Monte Fitz Roy peak is named after Robert FitzRoy, the captain of the HMS Beagle.
Rising ocean acidity — sometimes dubbed the evil twin of global warming ... [full story]

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Researchers at the Oregon Health & Science University Cancer Institute have pinpointed the protein that can lead to genetic changes that cause lung cancer.The researchers discovered that the production of the protein FANCD2 is slowed when lung cells are exposed to cigarette smoke. Low levels of FANCD2 leads to DNA damage, triggering cancer, senior author Grover Bagby said. The study, published in the British Journal of Cancer, said cigarette smoke curbs the ... [full story]

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - A South African-led study has uncovered fossils of a new species of small-bodied humans that once populated the Micronesian Island of Palau.Since the discovery of a so-called hobbit fossil from the island of Flores in Indonesia, scientists have debated whether those remains are of modern humans, reduced in stature for some undetermined reason, or whether they represent a new species, Homo floresiensis.
The fossils discovered by Professor Lee Berger of the University ... [full story]

Scientists aboard the NOAA research vessel Oscar Dyson in the North Pacific have sighted a creature of great rarity and even myth: a white whale.
White killer whale - NOAA photo
The white killer whale was spotted with its pod about two miles off Kanaga Volcano, part of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, on February 23. At the time, Kodiak-based Oscar Dyson was on a research expedition for NOAA’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center, assessing pollock fish stocks near Steller ... [full story]

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Researchers at Oregon State University are working to find an efficient method of processing bio-diesel fuel and ethanol from one of the world’s most plentiful organisms – algae – which could lead to breakthroughs in reducing the world's dependency on petroleum.
Ganti Murthy and photobioreactor - OSU photo
Applying the findings to mass-produce algae and extract its oils could be five to 10 years in the future, but the advantages are worth the ... [full story]

TRUCKEE, Calif. – A rare wolverine has been documented in the Tahoe National Forest by a researcher from Oregon State University working with colleagues at the U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Research Station – the first confirmed sighting of the animal in nearly three-quarters of a century.
Katie Moriarty, an OSU graduate student, documented this rare wolverine found in California
Katie Moriarty, a graduate student in OSU’s Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, has been conducting research ... [full story]

Pasadena, Calif. - A NASA spacecraft in orbit around Mars has taken the first ever image of active avalanches near the Red Planet's north pole. The image shows tan clouds billowing away from the foot of a towering slope, where ice and dust have just cascaded down. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took the photograph Feb. 19. It is one of approximately 2,400 HiRISE images being released today. ... [full story]

PASADENA, Calif. - NASA's Cassini spacecraft has found evidence of material orbiting Rhea, Saturn's second largest moon. This is the first time rings may have been found around a moon.A broad debris disk and at least one ring appear to have been detected by a suite of six instruments on Cassini specifically designed to study the atmospheres and particles around Saturn and its moons."Until now, only planets were known to have rings, but now Rhea ... [full story]

A popular, an­ciently rooted idea about clin­i­cal de­pres­sion—that it re­sults from a chem­i­cal im­bal­ance—still finds its way in­to many news re­ports, a study has found.There’s just one prob­lem: the claim has lit­tle or no ba­sis, the stu­dy’s au­thors say. In fact, the main­stream sci­en­tif­ic view is that de­pres­sion’s causes are simply un­known.
Absinthe Drinker by Pablo Picasso (1901).
The study is tak­ing on added rel­e­vance in light of oth­er new re­search cast­ing doubt on the ... [full story]

Nothing like a bird chirp­ing in the morn­ing to re­mind you of nature’s glory, right?Not quite. A rather creepy new re­search find­ing sug­gests some bird songs are a bit un­natur­al—in­flu­enced by pol­lut­ants, which cause at least one species of birds to change their songs.
The European Starling. Stumus Vulgaris. Courtesy Wash. Dept. of Fish & Wildlife It’s the latest of a number of studies to note that some of pol­lu­tion’s bi­o­log­i­cal ef­fects are not only ... [full story]

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A sophisticated new climate model simulation of long-term global warming suggests that even if greenhouse gas emissions are reduced, the planet will continue to get warmer for 100 to 200 years.
The delay would be caused by a warming of the world’s oceans, which would increase biological productivity as well as limit the oceans’ ability to absorb atmospheric heat and carbon dioxide, according to Andreas Schmittner, an oceanographer at Oregon State University ... [full story]